Erdapfel

Yesterday I went back to Nürnberg to see Behaim's globe, the "Erdapfel." This was the first map of the world, formed into a spherical shape, and was created in 1491, before Columbus's voyage. They also had a few other early globes, one from about 1520 that had a strangely shaped North America just floating in the middle of the ocean.

Martin Behaim's Erdapfel.

Unfortunately, photography was not allowed, so I grabbed this image from the web. And this was better than the photo I could have taken anyway, since the lighting on the actual globe was rather poor. Perhaps that was to protect the 500-year-old globe, or perhaps it was because they had moved the glove from its permanent position to a special exhibition. In any case, it was rather hard to see, but you can see a digitized version here.

The last time we were in Nürnberg, before Christmas for the Kriskindlemarkt, I did take a picture of Martin Behaim's statue, which was in Theresienplatz.

Statue of Martin Behaim, creator of the Erdapfel, the earliest globe of the Earth, in Nürnberg's Theresienplatz.

The other place I went to was back to the Nürnberg castle. I really enjoyed walking around the grounds. It really feels like you are in a medieval castle. It's built on a hill on on edge of the old city center, surrounded by walls and moats. There was lots of information about the geology of the region, and the rock outcropping upon which the castle was built, but it was all in German... :(

The front of the Nürnberg castle, as viewed from the approach up the hill from the city center. You can see the natural rock outcropping that was used for defence, and how much higher the castle wall goes. It would have been tough to attack it from this side.

The rear of the Nürnberg castle, wide angle, taken from the Vestnertorbrücke, the bridge leading from the Vestnertor (the Vestner gate), which can be seen at the end of the bridge. On the left you can also see the moat, which is no longer filled with water.